Entries in GOProud
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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Despite his recently-announced support for gay marriage, not all gay rights groups are showing their love for President Obama.

GOProud, a group for gay Republicans that supports conservative principles, announced yesterday that it was “enthusiastically” endorsing the presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

“We think that jobs, the economy, healthcare, retirement security and taxes are all ‘gay issues,’ and on every single one of those issues, Mitt Romney is light years better than President Obama,” GOProud’s executive director Jimmy LaSalvia said in a statement.

LaSalvia said the election is “bigger than just one issue,” such as gay rights, and when it comes to the “biggest issues facing our country” like jobs and the debt, he said Obama has “failed.”

“I happen to believe that just because you were born gay doesn’t mean you were born liberal,” LaSalvia told ABC News. “And while I don’t agree with Gov. Romney on everything, in general we share a view that a limited government is better than a big bloated federal government.”

But the group’s decision to endorse Romney was not without hiccups. LaSalvia noted in the statement that GOProud “strongly” disagrees with Romney’s support of a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Two GOProud board members voted against the Romney endorsement, with co-founder Christopher Barron saying he will continue to support Gov. Gary Johnson, who is running for president as a Libertarian.

“The GOP’s house faggots grab their ankles, right on cue… Pathetic,” Savage tweeted with a link to story about the endorsement.

Savage said it was “ridiculous” and “insulting to the intelligence of gay people everywhere” for a group that advocates for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities to support Romney, who wants to re-instate “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Defense of Marriage Act, which bans gay marriage.

According to Savage, LGBT equality is an issue that affects every aspect of politics, from social issues to the economy.

“Gay people like to have jobs too,” Savage told ABC News. “But Romney’s policies will make sure that if you are gay you can get fired from the job that you have.”

Photo Courtesy - Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Some conservatives who are already upset that this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference will include a right-leaning organization that promotes gay rights grew even more concerned this weekend when Sarah Palin suggested that she, too, supports the group.

“Should conservatives not reach out to others, not participate in events or forums that perhaps arising within those forums are issues that maybe we don’t personally agree with? And I say no,” Palin told the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody, who asked the former Alaska governor to weigh in on the presence of GOProud, an organization that stands for conservative values and gay rights, at the CPAC conference.

Her remarks did not sit well with American Principles Project president Frank Cannon. His group was one of the first to call on supporters to boycott this year’s CPAC conference, one of the largest annual gatherings of conservatives in the country, over GOProud's involvement.

“The concern of conservatives is over the participation of a group whose stated goals run at odds with that of core conservative principles, not over debate over those issues,” said Cannon said in a statement on Monday. “Governor Palin should clarify her comments by letting us know whether in her definition, traditional marriage is a core component of conservatism.”

“Certainly Governor Palin would not be in favor of allowing a socialist group to be a participating organization (i.e. co-sponsor of CPAC) in the name of healthy debate," he added.

Jimmy LaSalvia, executive director of GOProud, emphasized in a recent interview with ABC News that “organizations across the spectrum in the conservative movement” will be represented at CPAC, which is expected to draw 10,000 activists to Washington, DC.

Photo Courtesy - Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- By all indications, this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, which is expected to draw more than 10,000 activists to Washington, D.C. later this month, will be as popular as ever.

From speakers like Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to panels on "How Political Correctness is Harming America's Military" and "Reagan at 100: Role Model for the Next Generation," the agenda for the three-day gathering is chock full of personalities and events designed to fire up the conservative base.

But not everybody is pleased. Prominent elected officials, including Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, as well as several powerful right-leaning groups such as the Family Research Council, the Heritage Foundation, Concerned Women for America, the Media Research Center and others plan to boycott this year's conference in protest of the involvement of the gay conservative group, GOProud.

GOProud, founded in 2009, bills itself as a group that advocates for a "traditional conservative agenda that emphasizes limited government, individual liberty, free markets and a confident foreign policy." But critics say its other mission -- supporting gay rights -- should disqualify it from co-sponsoring CPAC.

The American Principles Project, a non-profit group dedicated to promoting constitutional principles, was among the first to build momentum for a CPAC boycott. Executive director Andy Blom told ABC News that the reason his group pulled out of the conference this year was because his members regard the "sanctity of marriage as every bit as important as keeping taxes low."

Blom said, GOProud is "actively working against one of the most basic tenets of conservatism," and from his perspective, "that just isn't acceptable."

Jimmy LaSalvia, executive director of GOProud, disagrees. "If you look at who will be at CPAC," he said, "there are organizations across the spectrum in the conservative movement."

"Our country over the past 20 years or so, is talking about gay people in a different way," LaSalvia told ABC News, "and conservatives aren't any different than any other Americans."